Painful and disabling disorders of the hand, wrist and elbow are associated with the repetitive or sustained exertions and movements of many work activities. These disorders include carpal tunnel syndrome, tenosynovitis, and epicondylitis. The specific occupational causes for these disorders have been intensively studied. However there have been few satisfactory investigations which permit reliable estimates of the incidence and prevalence of these problems in the workplace. Similaly, there have been few systematic evaluations of specific job-related risk factors. The United Auto Workers proposes to (1) conduct a survey of the prevalence of hand, wrist, and elbow disorders in a manufacturing environment, and (2) estimate the relative risk of different jobs, which will be ergonomically evaluated, for selected disorders. We propose to use a succinct, briefly administered questionnaire to determine the prevalence of selected hand, wrist and elbow problems among workers in an assembly plant. Comparisons of prevalence among workers in different departments and major job assignments will be made. A group of cases will be selected and matched with controls having no upper extremity complaints. Recent jobs performed by these workers will be observed, analyzed and categorized (in a blind fashion) according to the characteristics believed related to cumulative trauma disorders. This ergonomic evaluation will consist of a simplified and streamlined procedure derived from the more elaborate biomechanical evaluations that have already been developed by other researchers. Relative risks for these job characteristics will be calculated. Thus the second component of this research will consist of carrying out a new ergonomic job evaluation procedure, and assessing the association between that evaluation and the repetitive trauma disorders identified using a new survey instrument.